


Temporary

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Episode: s02e03 The Midterms, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-18
Updated: 2005-11-18
Packaged: 2019-05-30 18:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15102188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Josh and Donna deal with thier "temporary" living assignments.





	Temporary

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

**Kismet: Temporary**

by: MeganFitz 

**Character(s):** Josh and Donna  
**Pairing(s):** Josh/Donna  
**Category(s):** Romance Comedy  
**Rating:** TEEN  
**Disclaimer:** They aren't mine, I wish they were, but they aren't. Sniff Sniff  
**Summary:** Josh and Donna deal with their "temporary" living assignments  
**Author's Note:** This is an Alterative Universe story, (I've never written one before) The whole series takes place during the first and a little into the second session. Keep in mind its an AU so not everything will be perfect. 

Moments, they really aren't minutes, sixty seconds of time, moments are longer, snap shots of life. The next two and a half months were filled with moments. 

Legs pacing, nose sniffing, Josh spent the remaining minutes before Donna arrived trying to place the odor. Sam insisted the smell was some sort of animal, most likely dead. Toby however stated the scent was stale air. The conclusion was made, Josh never uses his home and therefore the air is stagnant and there could possibly be a rotting animal somewhere near by. Josh threw open all the windows and let the heavy August DC air in. However, he almost preferred the other smell he had come to assaulted with home. 

The ambulance arrived and Donna had a new address, temporary. She guessed. In the year of her sorted relationship with Josh she had ever seen where he lived. She assumed he lived like he was still in college, after all he did eat like he was. Her assumption was very wrong. His living room alone looked like an Ethan Allen catalogue, not it was an Ethan Allen catalogue, Spring 1998 page 12. 

"You have nice things." She commented. 

"They're nice because he doesn't use them." Toby laughed. 

"What's that smell?" She stuck up her nose. 

"Toby and Sam, they're both very smelly." Josh retaliated which earn him glares from both speechwriters. 

After Donna was settled into his bed, Josh spent rest of the evening shooing Toby and Sam out, ordering dinner (making it was out of the question) and making sure his guest was comfortable. He read and reread the instruction Cindy had given him. Dread was building in his stomach. Donna came with more instruction then the Chia pet he attempted to keep alive six months ago. And the Chia Pet didn't have major surgery or live long either. 

As the evening progress and the stress started to ware on Donna's body, Josh dug through his closet to get a blanket and pillow for his new post on the couch. For all of Ginger's efforts, the new pillow top guest bed will be delivered in a week. Once his body was comfortable enough to relax, Josh flipped between CNN and ESPN, hoping the white noise would put him to sleep. His thoughts often wondered to Donna, who was sleeping not 100 feet away from him, and he wasn't with. Mixed emotions and frustrations haunted his mind, it was going to be a restless night. 

He wasn't the only one. 

It started out as a whimper at first he thought it was just the TV but it came again. Then a moan, pitiful and frightened. He located the sound, jumped from the couch and ran to the bed room. 

Donna was twitching, sweating and crying in her sleep. She flinched when he touched her. Her mind was being tortured by memories she wished she could forget. She heard him call out her name, but assumed it was a part of the dream. When she felt his arm around her waist and he called her name again, her eyes opened violently. She clung to him, refusing to gaze at her savior. 

For a while he held her, kissing the back of her head, but never speaking. He felt the tension in her muscles and the rapid rise and fall of her chest. When her body seemed to relax he whispered, "Nightmare?" 

She didn't answer only nod. 

"Do you want to talk about it?" 

She shook her head. 

"Do you get them often?" 

She paused and nodded slowly. 

"Since the shooting?" 

She swallowed and in a voice barely a whisper, "every night." 

"Do you want your sleeping pills?" 

"No, they make it harder to wake up." 

"What can I do for you?" He asked. 

"Stay." 

He accepted his responsibility and crawled under the covers with her. The warmth of her back burned his chest while the coolness of her arms over the blanket quenched the fire. They spent the rest of the night listening to each other breathing. While she didn't sleep soundly, Donna didn't have a nightmare for the rest of the night. 

Morning brought with it a reluctant Josh. He didn't want to get out of bed on a normal day, but today he woke up with Donna in his arms and the knowledge that he would have to leave her. The alarm went off for two minutes before he accepted his harsh reality. 

Reality accepted, but he refused to leave until Cindy arrived. He called her every hour. He made a pact with himself, she came first. No matter what, she was number one. For every day Ginger was able to get him out of the office by 7:30 he would buy her lunch. 

The second night, he brought dinner and relieved Cindy. He laid in bed with her as they eat dinner and watched reruns of Seinfeld. Butterflies started to live in his stomach as each minute ticked on. He honestly had no desire to go back to the couch but he didn't want her to feel forced into letting him sleep with her. He had convinced himself that sex had nothing to do with this situation. But, the night, a bed and light cotton clothing often lead itself to sexual situations. 

"How did you sleep last night?" Donna asked. 

"Not bad." 

"Me too. No nightmares, you wanna try it again tonight?" 

He answered too eagerly, "YES!" 

She place her head on his chest, her wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He vaguely remembered thinking they fit perfectly once before. 

Leo wanted Josh to create ten plans for democrats running during the midterm elections. Six of them he was able to delegate to his staff but four needed his attention. He wasn't able to call home as much as he wanted too, but with Donna being not in the office he was able to focus on his work. 

"Remember when you wanted me to tell you when it was 7:30?" Ginger popped her head in. 

"Yeah." Josh didn't look up from his work. 

"Um that was four hours ago>" 

"WHAT!" 

"I am so sorry, I got caught up and I thought you left like three hours ago, I got up to get a file and I saw you were still in here." As Ginger explained, Josh grabbed his backpack and started to run out of his office. 

He made it home in record time. "DONNA!" He screamed before he even opened the door. 

The bedroom dark but her pale body seemed to glow, her muffled sobs greeted him. Blood drained from his face, he made Donna cry, again. "I am so sorry, I got caught up and…" She didn't look up. He stood at the foot of the bed unable to move, her puffy face and swollen eyes told him she had been crying for a while. 

He inched towards her, and whispered, "I am so sorry." 

Donna shook her head, "that's not why I am crying." 

"Why then?" 

"There was a commercial about cat food." Donna said between her sobs. Josh was even more confused now then he had ever been. 

"Cat food?" 

"I miss Baxter." Josh nodded as clearly lifted the fog of confusion around his head. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her. 

"Is that it?" 

"No, the world is a horrible place where someone will try to kill you because you're black and dating a white woman. It was Charlie, who would want to hurt Charlie? Worst yet, they keep sending apology letter and flowers because they hit me instead. Do I look like a twenty year old black man to you?" She asked bitterly. 

:Josh wasn't sure if he was supposed to respond but did anyway, "no." 

"But if they shot you, do you think they would feel bad? No. Its all good if you hit a Jew, but if you hit a blond Protestant girl from Wisconsin that's where the Klan's draws the line. The Klan feels horrible they shot me, but my own family doesn't even care. That makes my family worse than the people who shot me!" 

She buried her head on his shoulder and continued her rant, "I have a massive scar down the center of my chest. I'm hideous and no man will ever find me attractive." Josh wasn't expecting to hear that at all or what she was about to say next. 

"No one has come to visit me since I left the hospital, they're going to forget all about me. I feel trapped in bed, in a prison of comfort and fluff. I'm smelly and hairy, and my hair feels greasy. There's no food in the kitchen and you would rather be with files then with me." 

He rubbed her back, his mind reeling through all this new information. "I can fix some of that." 

She looked at him as if he was insane, the idea that anything she just said could be fixed had never even crossed her mind. She watched wide eyed as Josh left the bed and entered the bathroom. The sound of running water and shuffling floated into the bedroom. 

Josh stood in the doorway of the bathroom with the light flooding into the bedroom. He was holding two bottles staring at them intently before asking, "Rose Garden or Peachy Dreams?" 

"Huh?" 

"Does bubbling body wash mean bubble bath?" Josh continued to stare at the bottles. 

"What's going on?" 

"I think you should go with rose garden. You're going to take a bubble bath" Josh rolled his eyes, "Duh." 

Before she knew what was going on, he lifted her out of the bed and guided her to the bath. Maybe if she wasn't so confused about why Josh was running a bath or why he had bubble bath she would have noticed Josh's hands at the bottom of her shirt. He started to lift and cold air kissed her stomach. She looked at him horrified, hadn't he heard anything she said, she was ugly, scarred. His eyes soften her fears. 

"Did Cindy change your bandages?" 

"Yeah, before she left." 

"Ok well I don't think you should get that wet, so the water can't be to high." He pulled her shirt over her head and goose bumps covered her skin. Here she was standing shirtless in Josh's bathroom and they hadn't even gone on their first date yet. She covered what wasn't covered by the bandages of her breasts with her right arm. Josh didn't look down to survey her body, to make judgment, his eyes remained locked on hers. 

"Do you want to test the water?" He asked. She found her left hand touching the water without her knowing it. 

"It's perfect." Josh accepted this answer and put his hands on her hips. She closed her eyes blocking out all other sensations expect the softness of his finger tips. He gently tugged at the elastic of her sweat pants. The easy of which they fell to the floor surprised Donna. She felt him press pass her body to turn off the water. She opened her eyes to see a look on Josh's face unlike anything she had even seen before. He didn't say anything or look down at her, his fingers touched the finally piece of cotton. He didn't pull at it or survey it with his fingers, his motion was to trigger her understanding that she would have to remove the final article. She did and he led her to the water. 

Donna sat in the water, relaxing and feeling none of the tension she expected to feel. Josh's head was resting on the rim of the tub, he was staring up at the ceiling and talking about his day. She wasn't really listening, her mind was dancing with the paradox that everything Josh had done was sexy with out being sexual. It was sensual but sensitive. He didn't gape or stare at her, but there was something in his eyes that made her feel beautiful. He handed her a razor, but didn't watch as she gave herself her worse shaving ever. But she was slowly beginning to feel human again. Josh left to bring her fresh jammies as he called them but returned with a bathrobe and a pitcher. 

He asked Donna to move forward and she complied. He dipped the pitcher in the water and lifted it to her head. He smiled when she jumped a little when the water touched her skull. Josh became fascinated with her hair, the way it looked in the light, how it changed colors in when it was wet. Her dry hair looked one color, but the silkily multifaceted stands were stunning. Some stands were dark as night others nearly white. She didn't like his shampoo and made him very much aware of that as he worked it into a lather. He washed the bubbles out and her hair returned to its silk appearance. 

The water was getting cold, but she didn't want to leave. It was only when Josh saw the Goosebumps return, he suggested she get out of the water. As she stood, he became as fascinated with the water dripping off her body as he was about her wet hair. She was the most stunning image of beauty he had ever seen. Guilt quickly make him hand her a towel and resume eye contact. The amazing thing about eye contact is that he could still see her entire body with out making her feel like an object, less then human. Something about that idea stuck in his head, and he wasn't sure where he had gotten that idea from. 

She dressed herself and he wrapped his bathrobe around her. He stood behind her so she could look at herself in the mirror, and he found his arms moving out of his control, around her waist. "Do you feel better?" 

"Much." 

"I'll make sure someone visits you every day. It'll be a surprise. Sound good?" 

Donna nodded as Josh dried her hair. He spoke again, in a way he almost didn't recognize, "you know, you were wrong. About that no one would find you attractive or that you are hideous." He kissed her cheek, mostly because he couldn't trust himself to do anything else. It was going to be a long night with images of a naked Donna in his mind. He knew everything about this would just get harder, keeping himself away from her as she healed. "I'll tell you one thing. I'll never be late again. Not when I have you to come home to." Donna turned to face him and wrapped her arms around him, her head firmly on his chest. Two thoughts entered his mind at once. The first was how her head seemed to belong there, how perfect her breath felt on his neck. The second thought was how grateful he was that there were multi layers of clothes that separated their bodies. Maybe she won't notice how attractive he found her. 

"Josh?" He pulled away from her for a second, shame and horror washed over to him. 

"Um, yeah?" 

"Thanks for everything." 

He smirked without knowing he was doing it and with laughter in his voice, "Anytime, Donna." 

Josh left the office at an on heard of hour, 5:30. He informed Cindy he would be home and she could start to pack up. At seven Josh walked through the doors. Donna was sitting on the bed flipping though the TV stations. Josh peeked his head in doorway. "Donna?" 

She tore her eyes away from the screen. "You're home early." 

"I had to make up for last night." Most of his body was still hiding in the hallway. "I picked up dinner and some movies from Blockbuster. I also went to your apartment to pick up some more clothes for you." 

She smiled brightly, "Thanks." 

"I have a surprise for you…" He said coyly thus making her eyes wide. He stepped into the bedroom and pulled something from behind his back. He watched her eyes start to water and satisfaction took over. 

"Baxter!" Donna bellowed. Josh placed the cat on the bed. Baxter instantly flopped over and started to purr. She started petting and singing to her long lost child. "How long is he visiting?" She wanted to choose her words wisely, know everything around this place was temporary. 

Josh answer was cryptic, "for as long as you do." He sat on the bed with Donna and they gave the attention starved feline all that he desired. Josh asked how she liked her visit from Santos. She informed Josh that the congressman was going to be a father. Josh said Santos must be scared out of his mind. Donna confirmed that fact. 

When the cat had its fill of attention, Baxter hoped off the bed to explore his new surroundings. Josh announced the game plan for the night, "Dinner, Bath time, Curl Up in Bed and Watch a Movie and go to sleep." 

Donna liked the entire plan, noting that Bath Time had become a part of the rotation. She didn't want to inform Josh but felt there was really no way she could hide it, "they delivered the bed today." 

Josh blinked at her a few times, "oh." He looked away "Um that sort of puts a kink into the game plan." He was a little shocked how disappointed he was at all of this. 

Temporary, right? Everything was supposed to be temporary no matter how good it felt to wake up next to him, Donna thought to herself. Maybe temporary didn't have to be so short, maybe she could extend it. Right? "But I like your plan." 

Josh turned towards her, "really?" Any hint of disappointment was gone. Donna bit her lip and nodded. "Excellent. We should just stick to the plan." 

Donna looked up shyly and whispered, "Maybe it could be a regular thing?" 

Josh smiled, "Yeah, maybe it could." 


End file.
